The Game
by KaguyaHiroshima
Summary: Crossover between : Macgyver & Welcome to the Game. After a university student mysteriously goes missing and an encrypted computer left behind, it is up the Phoenix Foundation to uncover the deeper mystery, recover the missing man and put an end to what is really going on
1. Prologue

"Glad to see you all decided to show up." Matty said as the rest of them wandered into the room, acting innocent as they arrived an hour late.

"Traffic." Riley smiled, hoping that the excuse would work, but it was clear it wasn't going to as Matty rolled her eyes and shook her head. "It was very busy today."

"Sure, and I'm sure the fact that two of you aren't even properly dressed is down to that as well." She said, looking towards Jack and Bozer who'd failed to finish getting dressed, shirts on backwards and inside out, their trousers crooked and uneven.

"In all fairness, it was the drivers fault." Macgyver murmured, lending a glance to Jack.

"Hey, do you think beauty this good comes naturally?" Jack hissed back, taking his arms out his shirt and spinning it around.

"Sleep isn't doing a very good job." Macgyver smirked, but before their conversation could continue Matty interjected.

"Enough boys, we have a job to do here." She hissed, as a file came up on the screen behind them. An image of a young man along with some text that everyone was already reading through.

"What are we dealing with?" Macgyver asked, just as he'd skimmed over the document, turning his attention to Matty.

"A disappearance. A twenty year old university student went missing from his apartment in the early hours of the morning, no traces of forced entry nor any evidence of a struggle. Personal possessions were left behind and police believe it is foul play."

"What does this have to do with us?" Jack questioned, looking around the room and letting out a brief chuckle. "This sounds like an average disappearance; wouldn't the police take care of this."

"Normally, but when police recovered a laptop they found it was encrypted in such a way that only a high-level hacker could achieve, traces left behind of a virus that could destroy data in certain folders on the computer."

"This kid was a Hacker?" Riley interjected, staring at the picture.

"Unlikely, but whatever is on the computer has the interest of someone with quite the skill set, so we've been asked to investigate. Starting with the computer, so Riley you'll need to find a way to access it."

"Okay." She replied, picking her laptop up and preparing to leave.

"Contact me when you've cracked it, we need to know what this kid got himself into." Matty added just before everyone left the room.

"Hacking a hacker then." Jack joked, nudging Riley in the shoulder as they left the building, ready to take on the new challenge.


	2. One

With Jack behind the wheel they drove into the small rural area, having expected a far more industrial city than a countryside town. It was hard to imagine anything getting worse than mediocre vandalism at best. But alas with Riley behind her laptop, she found herself constantly reassuring the boys that this was indeed the right location. Directing them towards the police station where they had arranged to meet with the sheriff.

Parking up and exiting the vehicle the wandered into the small station, being met with a few glances from passing officers, surprising someone had walked in.

"Don't get many visitors?" Jack whispered, watching people cautiously move past them, avoiding eye contact and keeping to themselves.

"It is a rural town." Macgyver replied, leaning against the reception desk which had momentarily been abandoned.

"Even so. You'd think they'd never seen anyone walk in here."

"That's probably because not many people do. The crime rate in this town is ridiculously low. Ranges from shoplifting candy from corner shops to spray-painting a name onto a wall. Hardly crime central." Riley said, looking at the man with raised eyebrows, with him only responding with a confused expression. "It was a long journey."

"So you looked up the town history?"

"It's better than listening to you going on about some movie reference that none of us want to hear for the sixtieth time."

"Hey, Mac enjoys them."

"Don't bring me into this." Macgyver said, shying away from the squabbling pair whom continued to invest themselves in each other rather than the approaching receptionist.

"Can I help you?" She asked, sitting down in front of the computer, smiling gently as she stared at Macgyver.

"Looking for the sheriff, we've got a meeting with him." He replied, smiling back. The other two still hadn't noticed, only ending the conversation once the receptionist had finished giving directions to the sheriff's office. "Come on you two."

They followed Macgyver into the office where a gruff man sat behind a desk. A patchy beard shadowed his thin-lipped mouth, black slicked back hair shaped his square face, and a seemingly permeant scowl ridden across his face.

"You lot don't look like much." He hissed, staring each one of them up and down, heaving himself up from the seat and walking around to the front of the desk.

"Sorry to disappoint." Jack sarcastically remarked, though the sheriff seemed to take offence at his words.

"Look, we're here for the laptop." Riley interjected, hoping to distract the sheriff from an outburst. "Where is it?"

"Here, the piece of junk." He growled, pushing a laptop that was already waiting on the desk to the front. Riley moved over and opened the laptop to see the lock screen asking for a password. A hint written underneath, indicating someone had already tried to access it.

"I thought you said there was a virus on it…and it's was encrypted." She said, looking up at the sheriff.

"It is once you get past the screen. We had some of our top IT students at the university attempt to get into it. They said it kept locking the screen up, code would fill the screen before shutting it down and starting it up with a laughing skull. Then it's back to this page."

"A laughing skull? Well that is something new." She mumbled, crouching down and pulling her own laptop out, logging into her files. "Do you have a desk I could work at?"

"There's a whole load spare around the back of the building. More desks than staff for such a small town."

"Yet you have a university?" Macgyver mentioned, drawing the sheriff's attention whom sighed and looked at his hands before back to the men in front of him.

"That's funded outside of town, privately owned property. By whom we don't know, they don't like us poking around too much. And we don't have the man power to investigate anything either. No one else in town cares, because their kids get a great education, close to home."

"Interesting." Macgyver says, Riley moving out of the office and setting up one of the empty desk with the two laptops. Everyone followed, watching her set it all up and allowing her to get settled behind the keyboard.

"It might take me some time to get past it and actually look through it all. To try and find something useful, so is there anything you guys can do in the mean time?"

"Not rea-" jack began before Macgyver held up a hand to stop him.

"We'll go check out the victims apartment. There might be something up there." He said, smiling at Jack who didn't seem too thrilled with the idea.

"We already searched the place and found nothing." The sheriff said, crossing his arms as if once again feeling offended.

"Yes, but chances are if she does find anything it'll be near the university so…wouldn't do any harm to go ourselves. Right Jack?"

"Fine." Jack grumbled, pulling his car keys out and setting off, Macgyver looking back at Riley, nodding before he began to walk away.

"I'll call when I find something." She calls out, as the two men leave the building and once again get back into Jack's car. Driving back onto the relatively empty street, following directions Riley had texted to Macgyver just as they'd left the station.

They arrived at the apartment, a small one-story wooden cabin in an off-road section of the university, a few miles away from the university itself. It resided close to a wooded area that acted as a shortcut to a small park that the town's children would play in.

After looking around the area of the cabin, they find very little aside from a poorly kept garden and tire-tracks that belonged to the parked car on the grass.

"Why couldn't he have a drive? If there are mud on those wheels I'm going to be-" Jack hissed, focusing more on his cars state instead of the cabin. Macgyver rolled his eyes as he returned to the front of the house. Jack had barely drove onto the grass, so reluctant to ruin the suspension and drive in the freshly wet mud.

"It's fine."

"It's not fine man. Come on, quicker we are here, the quicker we can leave and go to a coffee shop or something."

"So, you sleep in for an extra few hours and still want coffee to wake you up?" Macgyver scoffed as they entered the cabin, something that was surprisingly unlocked, with very little sign of yellow tap around either.

"No, I just thought it'd be nicer than here…got to say, these cops don't do a great job at a crime scene."

"It is odd that they didn't keep it secure from the public." Macgyver said, walking around the small, open cabin. There were few solid wooden door, most were archway that lead from room to room. There was little furniture, most of the clutter was from general rubbish and clothes that littered the floor and just about any other surface.

"Jesus, has this guy heard of a bin?" jack said, picking up what he initially thought was a shirt, but immediately dropped it when he couldn't quite figure out what is was.

"Maybe the kidnapper was looking for something?" Macgyver offered, trying to refrain from think that this victim had lived this way for who knows how long.

"No, this is the only kind of mess you make yourself. Appalling, but totally possible." Jack said, skipping from clear space to clear space, refusing to touch anything in case it was something he might regret. Macgyver wasn't doing much better, trapped between heaps and mounds of unidentifiable objects.

"I'm surprised a kidnapped got in to get him to be honest." Macgyver shouted, hoping Jack was listening from the other side of the apartment, traversing his way around the rubbish until he came back to face Jack.

"Not wrong in that idea…"

"Hang on…" Macgyver said, looking over to the front door, leaping over, Jack stumbling behind, confused as to what caught his companions interest.

"What is it? Other than a door. Don't tell me you're like going to take it off the hinges and use it as a shovel to get everything out of here." Jack asked, watching Macgyver crouch down and clearing some rubbish from the base.

"That makes no sense, no." He replied, looking the door up and down before standing back up and turning to Jack. "There is no lock on this door."

"What?" Jack said, looking the door up and down as well to see there was indeed no lock on the door. "He wasn't expecting visitors then?"

"Clearly he thought he was safe perhaps. That might be why they found no evidence of forced entry."

"Because you can just walk in." Jack nodded, sighing as he rested his hands on his hips, stepping back from the door just to feel his phone vibrate from his pocket. Pulling it out to see Riley was calling, nudging Macgyver to get his attention, he answered it.

"I don't know how well things are going for you, but I stumbled upon something real interesting." She said, clicking away still on the other end.

"Like what?" Jack asked as the clicking stopped.

"I managed to get into the laptop and thus far from the previous attempts by others it seems to have deleted a few document files, notepad files and some images, but I managed to get into his social media." She explained.

"Riley, time is of the essence here…just, tell us the important stuff."

"Working on it." She hissed, sighing before she continued. "I found a chat log from last night, I grabbed some screenshot and I'm sending them to Mac via text for you to read." Mac was already on his phone as she finished her sentence, reading down the screenshot images he'd received.

Kurtwo

theres someone outside

Dom95

what

Kurtwo

someone out the windw

Dom95

is this a joke?

Kurtwo

due I can see him right now! he's like right there

Kurtwo

*dude

Dom95

whats he doing

Kurtwo

moving around. what do I do?

Dom95

taking the precautions?

Kurtwo

i cant see im anymore

Dom95

I need more info man

Kurtwo

i can hear something. what do do?

Dom95

I need more than that

Dom95

hey?

Dom95

you there?

Dom95

Kurt?

Dom95

this ain't funny man. reply whn you can, pls?

"So he knew there was kidnapper?" Jack said, looking at Macgyver who was still scrolling back and forth between the images.

"He knew he was coming and wasn't expecting it. It's weird there was no forced entry since he didn't seem to know the person?"

"Yeah, that's because there's no lock on the door." Macgyver said, leaning into the phone call, putting his own cell away for the time being.

"No lock? Seriously? So he couldn't actually protect himself."

"Either way, this chat log goes back days, even weeks just mostly going on about really weird stuff this Kurt finds. He goes on about whether his friend has seen the nude website or the organ selling website."

"Websites?"

"There is no internet history of anything he references, so he made damn sure no one would find out about it. It's mixed in with taking precautions and this friend doesn't seem overly interested in anything Kurt brings up."

"Who is this friend?" Macgyver asks, followed by a pause he didn't expect, there was some clicking on the other end before Riley spoke once again.

"A Dominic Hermwood, twenty-one year old biology student in his second year at this very university. He's currently living a fraternity on campus, Gamma Epsilon Nu."

"Gamma Epsilon Nu? I don't think I'll ever understand any fraternity or sorority names." Jack said, scratching his forehead.

"They're derived from the Greek alphabet; each word is a different pronunciation with their own meanings usually in relation-"

"I don't care Mac. Hey Riley, where is this fraternity?" Jack saying, shaking his head at mac who seemed disappointed to be shushed from his explanation but listened patiently.

"It's probably about half a mile from the science building towards east. You could hardly miss it, apparently it has the biggest residential building on campus, as well as being the closest to the educational facilities." She explains, Jack and Mac had already started making their way to the car, with mac soon after receiving further directions to their new locations. The phone clicked with a tone beep before Jack hung up his end, pulling off the grass with reasonably difficulty.

"I told you it wasn't fine." Jack hissed, receiving a chuckle from Macgyver who was holding onto the inner door handle as the vehicle rocked on the off-road terrain and crawled back onto the road, towards the fraternity house.


	3. Two

The car rolled into a free parking space as Macgyver and jack took a few seconds to stare at the oversized buildings attached. They were both staring out the windows, watching students pace the cobbled paths as they headed towards class.

"Think we'll get lucky and run into him coming out?" jack joked, smiling at Macgyver, who'd taken a keen interest in the building he presumed the be the fraternity house.

"Doubt it. Doesn't look too welcoming." Macgyver said, looking back at Jack who'd noticed the exterior of the building. Battered walls and smashed windows, fresh glass scattered around the porch and grass.

"Looks like someone got paid a visit." Jack said, Macgyver agreeing for the moment. The state of the place would give that impression, but as the men entered, they found that maybe they were wrong. As they walked through the front door that was barely hanging on to the wall, they were met with several drunken men who were still throwing busts through windows.

"Or maybe they're just drunk." Macgyver said, relatively unimpressed as one of them used the plant next to them as a home for his shots the night before. Shuffling away from the man and ducking under toilet paper they attempted to find someone of a sound mind.

It took some searching but the eventually found themselves stalking the upper floor bedrooms for someone, the pair splitting up to investigate rooms on either side of the building. Jack begrudgingly glancing in on each room, varying grunts escaping his lips as he passed by. Macgyver on the other hand, passed by empty room after empty room. Well, until he came to the only partially closed door in the building. Most of the door were either on the floor, barely hanging on or wide open, yet here was one that had something to hide.

A casual knock on the wood before Macgyver opened it to reveal a young lad, probably just a few years younger than him, packing a laptop into his bag before looking over at Macgyver.

"Uh, can I help you?" He asked, a nervous cough followed, crossing his arms and refusing to maintain eye contact didn't help.

"Dominic Hermwood, I presume?" Macgyver asked, the lad letting out a worried sigh before finally striking eye contact with the agent.

"What's it to you?"

"You were the last person to talk with a Mr, Kurt Woeld, correct?"

"You're looking into Kurt?" He asked, his arms dropping to his side as he relaxed, scratching his ear before glancing back at his laptop. "I mean. Yes, I spoke to him last night. We always do, share class notes."

"Mr Hermwood, even if I wasn't aware that you two are on completely different curriculums, we've seen the messages you shared." Macgyver explained, wandering further into the room and briefly closing the door again, hoping to keep some of the privacy. Dominic sighed in frustration as he slumped onto the bed, head in hands as he paused, thinking of his response.

"I thought the police couldn't get into the laptop?" He asked, clearly trying to change the subject.

"They couldn't, but that's why my employer sent our best IT expert. So you have her to thank for uncovering it all."

"I didn't do, I didn't kidnap my best friend if that's what you want to ask."

"Hadn't crossed my mind actually." Macgyver said, seeing the stress build in the pulsing veins on the kids' head. "But I do think you can tell me what he was doing at least."

"Something he shouldn't have been doing." He muttered, pausing as if in a trance, staring blankly at the wall as Macgyver stood in front of him. After a few moments he came back to reality and explained, "sorry, I mean. It wasn't exactly…"

"Legal?"

"Yeah…" He mumbled, his hands clenched together. "A couple days ago Kurt started getting…weird. He, was hanging out with new people and shoplifting and getting in trouble at lectures."

"What new people?"

"I don't know, I never met them and he didn't talk much about them aside from using them as an excuse. You know the whole, 'well they did it, so I'm just going along' sort of thing." He said, looking at his bag again, before getting to his feet and wandering over to the window. "But that was just the start. He said his friends knew this guy…Adam, and he…he had ties to the dark web, the deep web or whatever."

"That's some real intense stuff to be messing with."

"Yeah I figured when he brought up selling organs. That was just one that he found. I mean, when I saw him out and about I asked him why he was doing it. It seemed like a lot of effort for a small bout of rebellion."

"Did he give you reason?"

"No. He just said, he was looking for something, and he wasn't going to stop till he found it. But he never said why." Dominic said, almost disappointed. There was another pause before looking back at Macgyver.

"Do you know why he didn't have a lock on the door?" Macgyver asked, and Dominic seemed to pause in thought, thinking about it.

"I think he got it removed just before he started the whole web thing. Said he wanted to live on the edge a little. I said it completely moronic…I guess I was right on that front."

"Thank you Mr, Hermwood. If anything, else comes to mind…" Macgyver said, leaving the room to see Jack sauntering down the hallway.

"Find anything?" He asked, as the two walked back to the car.

"Yes, and I think we need to perhaps Riley will have to give us a lesson in computer tech."

"Oh god." Jack grumbled, starting up the car. "I change my mind, let's just stay out here." He joked, driving off in the direction of the police station.


	4. Three

The two agents finally reached the station, joining Riley at the desk she'd claimed, her attention focused on the laptops in front of her. It wasn't until the two men were looming over her shoulder that she acknowledged them.

"Did you find Dominic?" She asked, scanning through the remaining files on Kurt's laptop, though there wasn't much to see.

"Well Mac did." Jack remarked, glancing disapprovingly at Macgyver, who brushed the look off since he'd gotten all the way here, along with a lecture on how for all they knew, Dominic could have been more than just a university student. Which Macgyver found an absurd suggestion but refrained from arguing with the man. "So get this. Kurt was surfing the deep web."

"Really? The guy who spent his free time running charity marathons, working in homeless shelters and organising fund-raising events turned to the deep web?"

"He did charity work?" jack asked, confused at where this new information had come from.

"According to his computer calendar, yes. The last few months were littered with events, work, and general important dates. Then it just stops, like he decided to just quit everything."

"When did he stop filling out the calendar?" Macgyver intervened, pulling a chair up next to Riley as she pulled up this month's calendar.

"Half-way through last month he stopped adding things altogether. And that's not all. He stopped creating documents at around the same time."

"What about those notepads?"

"Well, aside from them. I was more referring to that fact he just stopped with his essays, research and what-not. He gave up on his education, which seems completely out of the blue."

"Like a new hobby had taken control of his life." Macgyver said, look solemnly at the laptop of the missing boy. A brief pause followed his statement, as everyone thought about their next move. "What do you know about the deep web Riley?"

"You say that like I should?" she remarked, the pausing telling her everything. "being a hacker, and stalking the deep web are two very different things."

"Yeah, but you're also the only one who really gets computers." Jack said, his two fellow agents looking at him for a moment before Riley sighed.

"Well, I don't know that much, but let's get things straight first. Kurt was using the dark web, right?" She asked, looking over at Macgyver.

"Considering the whole Organ fiasco, probably not just the deep web." He replied, and Riley huffed briefly before looking at Kurt's homepage, something which had reset itself to the factory default.

"Is there a difference?" Jack asked, once again trying to feel included.

"The deep web is a general term used to describe websites that are hidden from traditional search engines." Macgyver said, Jack almost surprised at the fact he knew the difference, since he'd targeted the question to Riley. "The dark web are websites intentionally hidden, sites that may illicit illegal behaviour."

"Oh, like selling organs?"

"Exactly. Though I doubt Kurt here was trafficking organs to anyone."

"Could be a viable option." Jack commented, Riley now sifting through code on Kurt's laptop.

"Hardly. He was a English major, and he'd practically failed biology." Riley said, Jack quietly slumping down into a chair of his own as Riley worked. "Why the sudden interest in the dark web for this guy though?"

"Apparently he was looking for something. Clearly something that caught someone's attention." Macgyver added, watching Riley work, almost mesmerised by her typing fingers.

"Well, this laptop has basically been utterly wrecked by whatever he was doing." She muttered, followed by a few seconds of silence while she worked. Until she stopped, pausing. "What?" She added, Macgyver looking over at the screen to see it was back to the homepage, with a new pop-up message.

'1 New call partially restored.'

Riley looked at Macgyver, then behind her to Jack who perked up at the sudden attention, he scooted the chair to the other side of Riley as she opened up the voice message, clicking play.

"Hey... So...are you sure you want to do this? The deep web is full of fucked up shit. Even worse, a Red Room. There are some things you can't un-see." The voice said. None of them recognised the voice, it clearly wasn't Kurt, and it didn't sound like Dominic (which even if it was, would mean he withheld information.) it was followed by a pause in silence, but given the few minutes it still had left to play, something had to happen.

"Alright well, don't say I didn't warn you. The Deep Web is like a giant maze, there is no search engine. So, you have to do some exploring to find what you are looking for." The voice continued, almost as if he didn't need an answer, or that perhaps by continuing the call, that counted as a confirmation. "I went ahead and set your homepage on A.N.N to a deep wiki page to get you started. What you are looking for are 8 hidden keys on the deep web. Not all sites have them, but some do. You'll have to explore each page, click the links and see what you discover. A hidden key looks like this, 1 - yx6B."

Macgyver quickly grabbed the mouse and clicked pause, looking at the two other agents who look just as stunned as he did. "He was looking for codes?"

"To be honest I just have far more questions now than I did before. Codes for what?" jack asked, the three trying to grasp just what this all meant.

"Well there's still some time on the call left…" Riley quietly added, taking the mouse back and hitting play once more.

"Each key contains an order number associated with them. This is important. Once you have found all 8 keys you have to type out the complete key in order. This will provide you with the Red Room's URL. This is where the notes system comes handy, you can keep track of all the keys you have found." The voice paused once again with only a few more seconds left.

"What's the Red Room?" Jack asked, silence looming in the air as Riley and Macgyver both exchanged glances. Eventually Riley slowly turned her head to look Jack in the eyes.

"An urban legend. Or at least I had hoped it was." She said, almost in a trance.

"Urban legend about what?"

"Allegedly it's a website where you can watch and participate in the brutal torture or murder of someone."

"So, either it's real, or this guy sent Kurt on a wild goose chase?" Jack said, looking at Macgyver, whose eyes were burning into the screen at the last remaining seconds.

"What else does he have to say?" He asked, Riley looking back at the screen once more, clicking play. There was a bout of static and beeps before it cut in half-way through him speaking once again.

"-got to mention. This is just an urban legend but I'm not sure if it's true or not. But they say the farther you get into the deep web, there are kidnappers that will try to locate and kidnap you. So be on the lookout for this, if you think someone is tracking you. Just turn all the lights off and be quiet, don't say a word. When you think the coast is clear, turn the lights back on." It was followed by further static and beeps before cutting off, jack sat poking his ears at the loud erratic noise.

"What's with the static?" He hissed.

"It was only partially restored, my guess is he said something in between but I don't what about. Heck he might have said something afterwards as well, but I can't tell right now. The laptop is in shambles, and I don't exactly have all the high-tech equipment in the world to fix it right now."

"Well I doubt we'll find anything more here. We'll head back to Phoenix, report to Matty and you can see about recovering anything else from the laptop." Magcyver said, getting to his feet, Jack following suit with Riley packing away her equipment.

"So, this guy knew that he could be kidnapped, and he took the lock off anyway?" Jack said as he stood next to Macgyver, the two waiting on Riley.

"Maybe there's more to it than that?" He replied, looking at Jack who just shrugged his shoulders.

"If it was me, I'd have six locks installed on the door." Jack said, followed by a pause as he looked around, Macgyver's thoughts as usual were ticking away, before a theory popped in.

"Why would a kidnapper lose interest just being the lights are off?" Macgyver asked, Jack attention returning to his friend, who shook his head in confusion. "Because he's not just looking for codes." He said, "he's playing a game."


	5. Four

"The dark web?" Bozer questioned, looking at the two agents who'd just finishing briefing Matty. Riley had taken up some space in the labs to begin work, with Macgyver and Jack returning to the board room to detail the information they gathered thus far.

"And you think that's it's some contrived game?" Matty added, looking at Macgyver who was admittedly beginning to doubt his theory, but it was about he only one he could gather from the details thus far.

"The victim removed the locks from his cabin voluntarily. The kidnappers supposed deterred by simply turning the lights off. They are oddly specific requirements for anything other than some form of underground game."

"Aside from if you lose this game, you end up kidnapped?" Matty asked, a rhetorical question, but one that clearly indicated her doubts. But despite that, she did at least seem willing to entertain the idea. "Once Riley has finished recovering what she can, we'll see if there is further evidence to support your theory."

"What do we do till then?" Jack asked, crossing his arms as he looked from Macgyver to Matty.

"Sit tight and look pretty." Matty replied, sarcasm lingering in her voice. "What do you think you should be doing?"

"We'll go to the lab." He said, moving towards the door, Macgyver and Bozer following suit.

"Good idea." Matty said, watching the three men leave the room and head down towards the lab where Riley had situated herself. It would also be where they remained for the rest for the afternoon, Macgyver and Bozer's task being to keep Jack from disturbing their little hacker. Something which was easier said than done.

"How long does it take to recover files?" Jack questioned, for perhaps about the thirtieth time.

"As long as it takes." Riley muttered, staring at the laptop before her. It clearly wasn't being particularly co-operative, and Riley was growing more and more frustrated, though she wasn't showing it.

"Urgh…Can't you tip-tap and make it go faster?" He pestered, Riley rubbing her temples in irritation as she just quietly sighed before returning her focus to the screen. A further grumble from Jack as they silently waited, a few moments passing before a beep came from the laptop.

"There…it's finally recovering files." She said, leaning back in her seat as the spinning symbol appeared on the centre of the screen.

"Great, we can actually do something now!" Jack said, getting to his feet and stretching his arms.

"I said, recovering…not recovered." She said, turning around in her chair before glancing briefly at the screen. "It's probably going to take all night."

"For real?" Jack sighed, the annoyance building up as he temples pulsed briefly. Bozer finally interjected himself into the conversation.

"Why don't we go out to dinner, relax, calm down, chill?" He offered, and everyone responded with a pause. "Come on, it'll clear everyone's head."

"I could do with some food I guess." Riley said, looking at Jack and shrugged in agreement before they all turned to Macgyver.

"What?" He said, his eyes scanning the audience he'd suddenly gained.

"You coming?" Bozer asked.

"I think I'll skip."

"Come on man."

"Seriously, I'm just going to head home." Macgyver said, everyone shrugging it off as they cheerfully left. Macgyver taking one last glance at the recovering files screen before closing up the lab and heading home.

Macgyver walked in, switching the lights on as he entered the quiet house. Stretching his arms before dumping his keys on the kitchen counter, leaning on it as he rubbed his eyes and sighing. He stood with his eyes closed for a second before letting himself zone out for a few moments. His thoughts only disturbed by a beep from inside the house. His eyes flashing open, back arched up as he scanned his surroundings. Chest tightening as another beep echoed off the wall. He took a few steps into the lounge, still looking for the source, leading him like a crumb trail.

After a few more beeps, he found himself traversing his entire house, until he came across his laptop, sitting atop his desk. Open, and as he paused, staring at it…it beeped. He brows furrowed, thinking back to before he left, when he was sure he closed it. He walked over, sitting down at the desk and looking at the screen.

Nothing seemed to be out of order, but he waited for it to beep again, out of curiosity to see if something would pop up. And pop up something did.

The beep was a voice chat request that kept popping, a number he didn't recognise. But without hesitation he accepted the request, only questioning his action once the call had connected.

"Hey... So...are you sure you want to do this? The deep web is full of fucked up shit. Even worse, a Red Room. There are some things you can't un-see." The voice said, déjà vu instantly kicking in as he recognised the voice from the laptop earlier. Questions began to fill Magcyver's mind as he sat, listening the silence on the other end, confused as to why he was getting this call.

"Oh, wait a minute...A couple more things I forgot to mention." The voice continued, something he wasn't expecting. He recognised the last part of the sentence from the phone call, just after the first section of static. With static also following this sentence, but Macgyver simply squinted as a reflex to the noise before it stopped and cut in again. "Where you currently are there is a serial killer on the loose, they call him 'The Breather'."

The Breather? This was not something mentioned in the file. Heck this wasn't something the police station mentioned. A rural town with a low crime rate…having a serial killer seemed rather odd. Well, this whole call seemed odd, after all, why was he getting this call?

"It's kind of weird, but he also calls his prey before killing them, breathing into the phone and saying other things that don't make sense, hence why he is called "The Breather". If you are somehow unfortunate to be a target of his, you have to block the front door with your life! He has a strict set of rules where he can only attack if he breaks through the front door... Don't ask me why." The voice continued, Macgyver's theory flooding back into his mind at this explanation. What kind of serial killer would just restrict themselves to coming through the front door?

"So, if you feel like he is targeting you, be sure to check the front door at the house you're at... If he is there, hold the doorknob with your life and hope he doesn't get too aggressive." The voice added, before another burst of static and the call cut off. Not even giving Macgyver a chance to respond to the whole thing. His hands instantly moving to check the call history before the screen went black. Macgyver's hands moving from the mouse as he waited for the laptop to respond, which it did with a laughing skull that glitched across the whole screen before booting back up.

Out of panic, he opened the call log to find his entire call history had been deleted. His hand over his mouse as he hunted every search engine and file on the computer in hopes of someway to recover the call. But alas, it has completely erased the history. He brushed his hair back in frustration as he leaned back, shutting the laptop lid in annoyance. Unable to piece together any thoughts on the whole situation. He sat for a few minutes before shaking head and heading back to the kitchen.

As he entered the room he heard vibrating, wandering over to the counter he saw his phone shaking violently across the counter. He picked it up and answered.

"Are you going to try and convince me to come out with you guys still?" He said into the phone, leaning against the counter as he assumed it was either Jack and Bozer calling him.

"…" The other end was quiet, all Macgyver could hear was breathing on the other end, which admittedly did kind of creep him out slightly. But before he could say anything else the call hung up, Macgyver looking down at the number of the call he just taken to see it was a blocked number…so clearly not one of his friends.

The tension was building up again as he eyes instinctively scanned the room, as he cautiously wandered over to the window to look out into the darkness of the street. His mind flashing back to the call from his laptop.

"It's kind of weird, but he also calls his prey before killing them, breathing into the phone."


	6. Five

The second Macgyver's mind had come back into focus, he was over at the door, making sure it was locked. Sighing after he stepped back, trying to gather his thoughts as he rubbed his forehead, biting his lip. He stared at the door for a second, before taking a deep breath and trying to relax.

A few moments of silence passed. But he quickly moved to the light switch, switching everything off before moving back over to the kitchen window, looking out into the street again. While he didn't remember the voice chat saying anything about this killer and lights, it would certainly put him at a disadvantage (even if that disadvantage also applied to him.)

He couldn't see anything out in the street, it was about as quiet as you'd expect. Macgyver wasn't sure whether this was settling or just more unnerving. After what felt like ages of standing in his kitchen in completely darkness, staring blankly out the window, he made the decision to head back to his laptop. He slowly found is way through the dark house as he searched for the right room.

Eventually finding it, settling back down at the desk and loading the laptop up once again, the light blinding him for a few seconds before her switched a lamp. He wasn't too keen on switching everything back on just yet, but he wasn't going to stare a computer screen in total darkness either.

He naturally started searching for terms pertaining to this supposed serial killer. Unsurprisingly he found very little. There was no indication of a pattern to the crimes, and most sources weren't even convinced it was the same killer as there seemed to be no connection between all the victims. Though some did share the pattern of hitch-hiking, but not all could be account for that. The only consistency was multiple stab wounds and forced entry through the front door and front door only. Though in the search he did see references to the Dracula Killer.

He sighed leaning back in his seat, rubbing his eyes in frustration. It was only a few seconds of peace and quiet before his phone vibrated once again, wildly shaking on the table beside the laptop. He hesitated for a second before picking it up, the screen lighting up with blocked once again. He let it ring for a few seconds before answering it, leaving it against his ear.

"…" Breathed the other end, just a few seconds of breathing before it hung up again. Macgyver pulling the phone away and placing it on the table for a few moments, his stuck to it like glue. He sat quietly for a few moments before picking the phone up again and picking Jack out of contacts, listening to the phone ring for a few moments before he picked up.

"Hey, you have no idea what you're missing?" Jack chirped into the phone. The sound of chatter and ski ball machines in the background. It wasn't hard to guess where they'd gone to eat.

"I'm really glad you guys are having fun." Macgyver began, not wanting to leap straight in with the whole, I think a serial killer is stalking my house and about to break in a murder me. Especially since he wasn't completely sure that was even happening, it's one hell of a theory for a phone call of a guy breathing.

"You bet, you should have come. We even got Matty to come with us." He said, briefly hearing Riley and Bozer shout hi in the distance, clearly aware he was on the other end.

"Yeah, um." Macgyver started, really wanted to get straight to the point of the call.

"What's up?"

"None of you have called me tonight, right?"

"What do you mean?" He laughed, which wasn't overall helping the general mood of Macgyver's situation.

"It's just some phone calls I got tonight. I just wanted to make sure you hadn't, I don't know. Butt-dialed me." Macgyver explained, a small part of hoping that he turns around and say that they very well might have since he'd gone home.

"No one's been on their phone all evening." Jack said, a sense of worry in his voice as he tried to mask it was a nervous laugh. "They weren't like threatening?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, the fact that you called me and asked kind of tell me they got you worried? They freak you out of something." Jack asked, the chirpiness was altogether gone, now he was nothing but concerned about his friend. Macgyver paused before answering, sighing before answering.

"I don't know, could just be a prank call." He brushed off, trying to lighten the mood, despite knowing it probably wasn't. He got up, slowly manoeuvring his way back to the kitchen, back to the window. While he was filled to the brim with dread, seeing the empty street gave him a sense of comfort.

"Since when is it ever just a prank call with us, eh?" Jack joked back, earning a brief smile from Macgyver as he reached the window, letting a small ounce of streetlight in.

"Well I didn't want to ruin your fun-" he began, cutting himself short as he looked out the window to see the street wasn't quite so empty anymore. A black car was parked across the street, just far enough away that was hard to miss…well if weren't looking for something just like it, it would have been.

"Mac, you alright? You still with me buddy?" Jack asked, his voice a little higher due to nerves.

"Someone's parked outside my house." Macgyver said before realing he'd just admitted to it, a pause from Jack before he heard hushed muttering, clearly he was talking with the others.

"You're on speaker, so mind telling us what's going on?" Jack explained, Macgyver watching the car intently, seeing no visible driver, the license plate barely legible in the lighting.

"Summary?" Macgyver said, refusing to take his gaze off the car, having no other leads to go on. "I got a voice chat, not too unlike our victim, with slightly different twist."

"Twist? What kind of twist?" Bozer interjected, his voice shaky as he spoke. Macgyver could only imagine how stressed everyone on the other end currently was.

"He mentioned a serial killer called, The Breather who calls you breathing into the phone before he kills you." He said, hearing a pause before Jack chimed in.

"Let me guess, you got call you think are this guy?"

"I got two calls of a guy breathing down the line before hanging up. I'm a little concerned, that's all."

"And now there's a car outside your house?"

"One I've never seen before, can't see the license plate and it's just sitting there. Yes." Macgyver said, as he heard the sounds of car doors and engines. "Are you in a car?"

"Of course, we're coming down. We'll be there in a short while." Jack said, as the engine sounds persisted. "Don't worry, we-" he began before he cut off by the phone buzzing in his hand.

"Hang on a minute." Macgyver said, only able to hear a few brief protests before he placed the agents on hold, answering the blocked number once again. He was only expecting the breathing to last a few seconds, mentally preparing himself for them, glancing back the rest of his house before something he wasn't expecting to happen, did.

"Knock knock. Who's there? I'm here!" Came a raspy voice from the other end before the call hung up, Jack's voice shouting down the phone as he came back on the line. Macgyver froze for a second before he blocked the shouting out, his head spinning back to the car, seeing a hooded figure stood in the middle of the road, staring at his house. A green hoodie and a surgical mask covered his face, it took a few seconds before he glanced over at the window, the figure's eyes widening as he saw Macgyver.

The figure started running up the pathway, clearly to charge the door. Macgyver, despite knowing the door was locked, darted over, dropping the phone to the floor, his back pushing against the door in case somehow, he managed to get past the lock. A few bang against the wood started to get the hinges creaking. This guy was really determined to get in, even if it meant smashing the door down.

After a few more kicks against the door, he started twiddling the handle, Macgyver remember the voice chat and grabbing hold of it, trying to stop him, though the guy certainly had some strength.

"I can see you in there!" Shouted the man, still trying to both twist the handle and smash the door in, and it took all Macgyver's strength to keep the maniac at bay, sliding on the floor briefly as he pushed his full weight against the door.

Then it went silent. The door was steady, and the handle still. Macgyver stood for a few seconds before releasing his white knuckles from the handle, pulling away from the door and grasping his shoulder as he dashed over to the window once again. He watched the car speed away into the darkness, leaving Macgyver to drop his head and let out a sigh of relief.

He closed his eyes, finding his way to the light switch and turning all the lights back on, slumping down against the wall. His gaze eventually spotting the phone on the kitchen floor, he crept over, hearing Jack shouting orders to drive faster.

"Jack?" Macgyver said into the phone, switching it speaker so he could lean back against the counters.

"Mac, god…" He mumbled, "you alright? Thought we'd lost you there? We're just a few minutes out, hold tight."

"I'm good…" he said, letting his heart rate settle as he waited for the other agents to arrive.


	7. Six

It wasn't long before agents had showed up to Macgyver's residence, with Riley immediately scouring the security cameras in the neighbourhood, tracing the number that had called Macgyver and attempting to recover the lost phone call. Jack had been searching the rest of the house but failed to find any other threats. It was clear he was still on edge, but he certainly seemed less manic as apposed to the way over to the house.

"The number came from a burner phone that is currently in a bin down the street." Riley explained, getting a collection of frustrated sighs from everyone else. "And I've tried everything to recover that phone call on your laptop, but."

"You can't." He finished, an approving nod from Riley as he stood rubbing his temples. "So, we have no further leads."

"Not necessarily. You remember the phone call, right?" Matty said, everyone looking over to her as Macgyver nodded. "Did it mention who he usually targets?"

"People on the dark web and hitch-hikers."

"Well you've done neither?" Jack interjected, looking over at Macgyver with a worried expression. "Right?"

"I don't think Blondie fit the criteria Dalton." Matty said, looking back over to Magcyver. "Which means he must have been sent because we're investigating."

"Wouldn't that mean we're being…watched?" Bozer said, everyone looking over to him. "I mean, there was no guarantee Mac would've been home alone tonight."

"What if they didn't care if you and Mac were at home?" Jack asked, glancing at the group around him.

"I doubt it." Macgyevr said. "While I was looking into The Breather, most albeit loosely confirmed victims were always living alone or at least were alone at the time of the murder."

"So?"

"So, while I can't describe him to sketch artist, the guy wasn't exactly very big."

"I thought you said he was trying to break through your front door?" Jack asked, crossing his arms.

"I said he wasn't big, not weak. Anyone can throw their full weight into a door enough to break through it, but that doesn't mean he's trained to combat someone, let alone multiple people."

"Especially trained operatives." Bozer added, though everyone briefly overlooked the statement.

"Mac's right, if they're onto our investigation then they're not going to be stupid enough to take everyone on at once." Riley said, everyone aside from Jack nodding in agreement.

"Especially with a kitchen knife." Macgyver muttered, before silence fell. A few agents leaving the house.

"I can try to head back into Phoenix, see if I can do anything to speed the laptop recovery up." Riley offered, looking over at Matty.

"Good." Matty replied before looking to the boys around her, "Mac, I've organised some agents to watch over the house tonight, if he comes back they'll be the first to know." She explained, looking out the open doorway to a SUV parked across the road.

"And I'll be spending the night as well." Jack smiled, Macgyver rolling his eyes. "Hey, I'm not leaving this house until I know that you're not going to get stabbed in your sleep."

"Yeah I'd feel safer with Jack staying the night." Bozer said, a nervous smile on his face.

"We'll see if you'll still be saying that in a few hours." Macgyver joked, looking at Jack with an innocent smile who just responded with a shake of his head.

"Then I expect to see you three in the morning. If he dies, it's on you Jack." Matty said, heading down the path, Riley on her tail as the two left for the evening. Once the street seemed all quiet once again, Mac was already off gathering materials.

"Mac, what are you doing?" Bozer asked, seeing his friend dart in and out of rooms, bringing various contraptions. Eventually compiling a copper wire, a spring from a pen, an iron ball and some glue which he naturally began assembling.

"I think he's busy working his magic." Jack muttered, not quietly enough as Macgyver sighed just before responding.

"I'm making a motion detector."

"Out of that stuff?" Bozer said, while he had total faith in his friend, the small and random collection of objects seemed rather far-fetched.

"It is a vibration sensor, it will detect vibrations. Like pretty much any other kind of motion detector, passive, infrared or microwave, it will alert me to any disturbances." Macgyver explained, finishing up his small contraption.

"Or I could just watch the door?" Jack said, watching Macgyver placed the sensor by the door.

"Where's the fun in that?" Macgyver smirked, turning to face Jack as Bozer settled in for the night.

"You sure you alright?"

"Fine." He sighed, a fixed smile on his face as he wandered off to his bed. Lying down and closing his eyes. While he wasn't lying on being fine, he was a little shaken. Murdoc was calculating, The Ghost was mysterious…but this guy…he was just pure aggression in human form. There was something just so unnerving about a guy who fears nothing.


	8. Seven

[Following morning…]

Macgyver and Jack arrived at Phoenix (unsurprisingly) late, with the two boys making it to the war room to see a very unimpressed Matty waiting for the pair of them.

"You know, if it wasn't for the agents I put on you last night, I might have very well thought you were dead." She hissed, the two boys looking at the ground like guilty children. "Did Jack's beauty sleep keep you so preoccupied you arrive two hours late to work?"

"Actually, this is on him this time." Jack said, pointing his young partner who took offence to snitch. "Boy genius was playing with his motion detector."

"He means, I was setting up my little alarm system before I left for work." Macgyver defended, crossing his arms.

"I thought that was the purpose of making it in the first place?"

"That was so we could get some sleep, your welcome by the way. I was expanding on it all night for when we came into work."

"Hey, I was happy enough to watch the door all night if I had to."

"Boys." Matty interrupted, the two agents snapping out of their own conversation to look at their boss, who couldn't help but shake her head. "If you're done with the bickering, Riley has managed to recover several files from the laptop."

"If she recovered the files, where is she?" Jack asked, looking around the room to see if rather empty for such an achievement.

"Because while they are recovered, several are encrypted that she's having to crack as we speak. But she has cracked a few already, well a lot considering how late you boys are."

"Still not my fault." Jack stated, though his attempt to defend himself was thrown on deaf ears.

"Most of the notepads came through relatively unscathed, though they make very little sense. Riley did put through a note along with them to say that these were likely keeping track of the codes he'd found."

"How many did he find?" Macgyver asked, looking at the notepads filing the screen in front of them, amongst a few others Matty hadn't quite gotten to explaining.

"Five codes in total, and two website URL's."

"URL's? To what?"

"Well, going off of the initial phone call you recovered, it seems that Kurt was searching the dark web through wiki pages. These two links lead into alternate wiki pages with several website links embedded into them." Matty explained, her gaze switching between the two agents as the scanned the notes. "It is through these embedded links he'd find the codes and potential links to deep wiki pages."

"Okay, but what are these?" Jack asked, pointing at the audio recordings that were sat paused on one side of the screen.

"That would be parts of the initial recovered phone call. While Riley hasn't finished with the laptop, she has said that there doesn't appear to be any more audio files."

"So…"

"So, we believe these are all snippets of the same call. Riley believes they probably didn't share more than one call with each other. Everything was explained and then he was left to his own devices."

"Explain the rules of the game and then let you loose to play." Macgyver muttered under his breath.

"And we actually had some luck. Riley did recover more of the phone call, a section just after the warning of kidnappers.

"Where you currently are there is a serial killer on the loose, they call him 'The Breather'." Came the oh so familiar voice, but not only that, it was the same call he'd received. Matty paused the clip instantly, looking over at Macgyver.

"The call goes on to describe the Breather, exactly the way you told us. We think the call you received was an edited, pre-recorded call Kurt received."

"They knew we were recovering the files, so it didn't matter if I heard that part of the call." Macgyver confirmed, following along with Matty's brief, who nodded approvingly.

"Furthermore-" Matty began up again, a smile stretching across Jack's face as he interrupted his boss.

"Wow, how much did we recover?" He chuckled, Matty giving a disapproving glare 'requesting' him to be quiet so she could continue.

"Furthermore, Kurt was a fanatic for organisation. While his calendar has been dead for over a month, he was still very much in the habit. The most recent file Riley sent up was…interesting to say the least."

The relevant file she was talking about popped up onto the screen, a note like the rest, but this one was a remainder.

'Call at 10pm through VOIP…Who is Adam?'

"Who is Adam?" Jack said, looking at Matty and then to a confused Macgyver. "I thought Dominic said Adam was one of his friends?"

"No, he said that some of his friends _knew_ a guy named Adam. It's possible Adam is the name of who is behind the scenes?"

"A guy this careful probably isn't using his real name, Adam could just as easily be a cover." Matty suggested, looking at the note herself. "But we do know that the call was initiated at 10pm and that it was through VOIP."

"Why is the file name, C.E CRFL?" Macgyver asks, pointing to the top heading bar where the name was situated.

"Why do you ask?" Matty said, looking up at the file name before back at Macgyver, whose eyes lit up in thought.

"Is Riley in the lab?" He asked, like usual, keeping his thoughts to himself. Matty nodded reluctantly before Macgyver darted out the room and down the hallway. Jack throwing his arms up in frustration as he strolled after him, Matty by his side.

"Every damn day…" He grumbled, getting a smile from Matty as the made their way down the corridors to the lab where Riley was decrypting the remaining files. Only jumping when Macgyver leaned over her shoulder, interrupting her work flow.

"Please don't sneak up on me like that." Riley said as she glanced at Macgyver who simply smiled innocently as he turned his focus to the computer in front of her.

"Matty said Kurt here was a very organised person."

"Yeah?"

"He wouldn't happen to keep a track record of anyone he's had a conversation with by any chance?"

"Um, let me look." She said, confused as everyone else but alas she searched the files. It took a few seconds but eventually she came across a contact list that Kurt had stored away in one of his many folders. She opened it to see a long list of several people, categorised alphabetically. "What am I looking for?"

"C." Macgyver said, Riley jumping to the C section, still unsure what exactly she was actually looking for her, but it seemed she didn't have to when Macgyver lightly tapped a name on screen. "Clint Edwards."

"Clint Edwards?" Jack repeated to an unimpressed Macgyver.

"C.E CRFL…" Macgyver began, looking at the lost faces in front of them. "C.E are Clint Edwards' initials. CRFL is clearly a shortened version of careful. It wasn't Kurt who seemed cautious of Adam."

"It's this Clint Edwards." Jack said, finishing the sentence for him, to which Macgyver smiled approvingly.

"Which means Mr Edwards might just very well be the man we need. Think you can track him Riley?" Matty asked, looking over at the young hacker.

"Please, that's my version of a paperclip and chewing gum." She smirked, typing away and handing the address over to Jack within a few moments. The two were already out the door before Matty needed to give any instructions. Soon they'd have the true Identity of Adam and have him behind bars, they just had to hope this Clint Edwards was as useful as Macgyver thought him to be.


	9. Eight

Travelling had taken longer than expected, while at first glance the address was simple enough, the maze of streets certainly made navigation difficult for those unfamiliar with the area.

Alas, Jack and Macgyver pulled up in front of the apartment building that was Clint Edwards home address. The place was incredibly tall, 8 floors to be exact with an alleyway running down one side. There was a strange gloom around the place, eerily quiet and somewhat unwelcoming.

The two agents wandered into the lobby, an open space with a desk on one side, though the seat behind it had been abandoned. The eerie quietness followed them into the building.

Continuing to the end of the hallway they came to a T-section, both sides lined with doors with one at the very end on either side.

"Which floor's he on?" Jack asked, looking at Macgyver who looked at the address they'd been given.

"803…so the eighth floor." He replied, glancing over at Jack before looking at the door, examining each one.

"Where's the elevator?" Jack asked, though it seemed almost rhetorical considering there was no sign of one out of all the door. Instead Macgyver pointing to the right-side end door, a sign next to it sowing stairs. "Are you serious? You want us to walk up to the eighth floor."

"I don't think we have any other options." Macgyver said with a shrug of his shoulder as he opened the door to reveal the dreary, dark staircase. Taking a few steps up and leaning over the railing to peer up and the see the immense number of stairs they had yet to climb.

"I already hate him." Jack muttered as they began climbing, each flite seeming to get longer and longer. It felt like the were circling endlessly until they finally saw the floor sign reading 8 next to a door labelled utility. Another door to the left of it remained unlabelled, opening it to reveal a corridor with yet more doors. They walked down the corridor, reading the door numbers off as they passed until the reached the midway point, a single door that read: 803. The duo approaching the door, only for Macgyver to pause and look over at Jack.

"Did you hear that?" Macgyver asked, his comrade looking at him confused.

"Hear what?" Jack whispered as he pulled his gun out, leaning against the wall just beside the door. Macgyver held up a hand to tell him to wait as he knocked.

A few moments went by with no response, so Macgyver moved to one side as Jack kicked the door in, the room shrouded in darkness. Macgyver peered in behind Jack, flicking a nearby light switch, illuminating the apartment briefly. The place was open, the only door leading to another room was the bathroom, which jack glided over to and cleared.

Macgyver took interest in the computer desk set-up the guy had hidden in one of the corners, he wandered over as Jack put his gun away. Switching the monitor on, glancing down at the desk as it loaded. Jack joining his side as Macgyver handed him a post-it note:

2016 call log through seized data

Multiple calls from unknown caller

-Cellular network

-heavy breathing only

Always a call 10pm through VOIP the night of incidents.

Who is Adam?

"Well, I guess he did get that note from Clint here then?" Jack said, looking up at Macgyver who was looking through the notes on the computer.

"Yeah, and guess who got eight codes as well." Macgyver said, pulling up the note with the eight codes.

"Right, so he was playing the same game? Maybe Clint was one of Kurt's new _friends_?"

"Maybe. I don't know." Macgyver muttered, as he stared at the screen, Jack letting out a soft sigh.

"You don't know? What do you mean?"

"Clint's got far more icons than Kurt. Like this." He replied, pointing to an unfamiliar icon under the notepad; Noir Tunnel. "And if you look in the top left corner…" he said, pointing to an ever-growing number with an odd symbol in front of it.

"So, this guy is like a veteran or something?" Jack said, watching Macgyver hover over a few other icons before he clicked onto the top menu bar, a small drop down showing up with two active motion detectors. "This guy had motion sensors set up?"

"That must have been what I heard?" Macgyver said, noticing the audio que was active with them. "But this isn't something just anyone gets access to."

"Is there a recording like Kurt had of the…VOIP chat?"

"It took Riley several hours with Phoenix tech to recover Kurt's phone call? We're half-way across state without Riley."

"Can't you whip out a paperclip and jam it in and bam, recovered?" Jack asked, Macgyver shaking his head as he scoured through the files available, looking for perhaps and un-altered call. While he tried to find any record, he wasn't seeming to have any luck. Jack had taken to exploring the rest of the apartment, seeing if he could find any physical evidence that could help.

After a few minutes of searching from the pair, they determined they weren't going to find anything of much use themselves, so took to calling Matty and giving her the run down.

"I'll send some agents down to search the apartment and close it off, and I'll have Riley look through the computer to see if she can find anything you guys might have missed."

"Sounds good boss." Jack chirped into the speaker phone as the two exited the apartment, Jack's smirk fading as he realised they would be walking back down the several flites of stairs. Macgyver hanging up the phone as the two began making their way down, though he couldn't shake the unnerving feeling of someone's eyes on him, but he couldn't see anyone.

He tried to shrug it off to paranoia after last night, but a nagging feeling wasn't going to let this rest. Besides, he'd rather have been paranoid and alive that clueless and stabbed repeatedly.


	10. Nine

The drive home was more bearable, though still unpleasant. Macgyver's feeling had left once he'd got in the car. A part of him still felt like there was something back at the apartment, something that made him uneasy, something he'd perhaps just overlooked by accident. But he also knew if there was something, the agents Matty was sending down would find it.

The reached Macgyver's front door, Jack prepared to stay another night despite no one having asked him. But it was something Macgyver had accepted that the moment he returned to LA with him, he was going to helicopter parent regardless.

Macgyver unlocked the door and opened it, Jack yawning into the darkening sky of the evening. As the entered, Jack was already on his way to lounge to kick up his feet, all while Macgyver headed over to his little motion detector, ready to reset the trigger he had likely set off.

He looked at the motion detector to see it had already been set off. Not long before they'd arrived home. He dashed of to Jack who'd taken a seat, a dissatisfied grunt at having to get back on his feet.

Jack pulled out his gun and began clearing room by room, Macgyver close behind, watching for anything that might have been moved or rigged since they've been away. As they went through the rooms, the two agents figured that whoever might very well be gone by now, but alas, as they entered Macgyver's workshop, they found an unfamiliar figure.

"Hands up." Jack shouted to the masked figure. A muscular man wearing tight fitted black garments and plain white mask hiding his features. Gloves covered the hands that were hovering a phone that had been placed on the desk.

"I said hands up." Jack repeated when the figure refused to move. But he once again refused to place his hands up, instead let a few seconds pass before grabbing the nearest object, a box of trinkets that he flung at the two. He darted past them while they were distracted, but Jack was quick and on his trail the second the figure had brushed past.

The figure darted out to the porch, rushing to the balcony before Jack had caught up, gun pointed at the man once again.

"Hands up, or I swear to God I will shoot you." Jack shouted, the figure pausing in his tracks, his hands slowly raising up as he stood, peering over the edge. "Now turn around." Jack added, just as Macgyver cautiously approached from behind. The figure hesitantly obliged, slowly turning around, the hollow eye sockets hide his whole face, it was unnerving to look at.

Jack slowly began approaching the figure, gun close at hand, clasped tightly as he approached, ready for him to make another move. His move being a wolf whistle, something that caught jack off guard until he heard a grunt from behind. His head whipping around to see another figure dressed in the same manner, but that over a female shape, she'd clocked Macgyver over the head. He lay motionless on the ground, the figure looking up at Jack, her feet quickly skidding as she attempted to run forward.

Bang

Shot once, shot twice. Shoulder, then abdomen. The woman went down the second the bullets entered, her body dropping backwards. Jack's head flicked around to the other figure, but he'd taken the leap off the balcony and like Murdoc, disappeared without a trace. With no lead, he turned his attention back to his young charge.

He slid to his side, rolling his onto his back, gentle slapping his cheek until his eyes twitched as they opened.

"Welcome back." Jack muttered, relief littered in his voice as Macgyver slowly regained focus in his vision.

"What-" He began before seeing the motionless body next to his feet, the female, masked individual. Jack moved over to her, her pulse present but faint. He looked up at Macgyver who was already calling Matty, briefing her on the unconscious body in his house. Her response to be her driving all the way down there herself, especially once Macgyver recalled the phone left behind.

"Leave it, we'll examine it following procedure." Matty explained, unable to realise he'd left the phone on speaker on the ground next to Jack, since he darted off to the workshop to look at the phone. "Please tell me he's still listening?"

"We both know the answer to that question Matty." Jack said as he held pressure on the wounds, hoping the assailant would remain alive, they might very well hold some key information.

Macgyver on the other hand had made it to the workshop, phone in his hand. It looked like a mobile version of the two desktops they'd already encountered. The same icons for A.N.N, notes, skyBreak and the Noir Tunnel. Though none of them currently seemed to be clickable, that was when a call came through the phone. A face appeared this time, a young man with black hair with the name Adam listed just beneath the picture. Just under that were reject and answer buttons, and with a hint of hesitation he clicked the answer button, placing it against his ear. A familiar voice began speaking, a new line he'd not heard before…

"I heard you were looking for me…"


	11. Ten

"I heard you were looking for me…"

"What do you want?" Macgyver asked, expecting someone as calm and collected as Murdoc, but he was surprised when the man on the other end seemed to challenge his theory.

"Look I know how this all looks but I swear I'm not behind it, and now my friends are going missing." He claimed, his voice steady as his spoke. He was clearly prepared to deny his involvement with the situation before Macgyver had even asked any questions

"You just happened to send two masked criminals to break into my house to tell me you're not responsible?" Macgyver retorted, hearing a sigh from the caller before he responded.

"My friends are dropping like flies and I've no intention of being next, I pay good money for decent protection, there's no crime in that."

"No, but there is for aiding and abetting, you encouraged their antics."

"I'm not in control of how they carry out my request to deliver this phone…" He hissed, growing more defensive as they call progressed. "Look I'm trying to help."

"How so?"

"I know someone who probably knows exactly what's happening." He said, Macgyver pausing for a second as the lead echoed in his mind, questions following each idea and theory he could conceive.

"And you don't?"

"She's got way more experience in the dark web that I have, who do you think introduced me?" He chuckled nervously, almost like he regretted revealing that information, despite going through all this effort to do just that.

"And let me guess, you can't reach her for some arbitrary reason?"

"Her online presence has been dormant for a while…" He said, a pause looming in the air as Macgyver clued in on what he was suggesting. Though the agent wasn't going to make things easy for the man hiding behind the phone.

"I don't see how that would stop you?"

"I'm a hacker, there's only so much I can do with a mouse and keyboard, following someone who's hiding their tracks out in the real world while their digital footprint ends at a brick wall isn't one of my expertise." He growled, growing defensive again as he huffed into the static, awaiting the agent's response.

"Say I was interested in this woman…"

"Her online handle is Nympho. When I first started out she had the gall to prank with that that urban legend…instead of, I don't know, telling me they were real." He dropped the information quicker than Macgyver would have expected. The tension in the caller's voice seemed to suggest he was becoming annoyed with the whole conversation.

"Didn't you do that to your friends?"

"I never encountered them before I made that call, I just took what she said a face value…A mistake that not all rookies on the dark web recover from." He mumbled into the phone, something that Macgyver had to listen carefully to in order to hear. "I'm afraid I don't know anything else though."

"That's it?"

"You've done a fine job of figuring everything else so far…" He said before his voice turned into the buzz that signified the end of a call. He slid the phone from his ear and placed it on the desk before heading back out to the front door where Jack was already waiting. Several paramedics already rushing back and forth from the ambulance parked across the street as they tried keeping the assailant alive.

"Expect to be in the dog house." Jack chuffed as he watched out the door, waiting for the boss and other to pull up, though they were at least another few minutes out. Macgyver cracked a smile briefly as he reached the other side of the door, glancing out at the street.

"That was a given." He replied, a moment of silence fell between the men as Jack gaze turned from the road to his young friend, a look of concern that Macgyver soon picked up on.

"You were in there a long time. What happened?" He asked, Macgyver looking to the ground and biting his lip before his eyes met with Jack's.

"I got a call…for what I'm guessing is Adam."

"Adam? The psycho who could very well be behind the whole thing?" Jack growled, pulling Macgyver to one side for a semblance of privacy with the people crowding the room and porch.

"Well I don't think we can definitively say he's behind the whole thing."

"He sent two guys to break into your house and attack us. What part of that screams innocent to you?" Jack asked, glancing over his shoulder at the passing paramedic, carrying the occupied stretcher out the door.

"That I don't buy, but he seemed sincere in terms of not being responsible."

"You know, I never believed you were true trusting…I being to think that maybe I was wrong in that assumption." Jack said, trying to mask his frustration and disappointment behind humour.

"He gave us a lead." The moment those words left his lips, Jack's interest was perked, his eyes locked onto his companion.

"A lead?"

"But I need Riley to do her magic." Macgyver explained, looking out the door to see a car pull up, three familiar faces exiting the car. Matty scowling at the boys, but before she could get a lecture out, Macgyver was by Riley's side. "I need you to find someone."

"Someone? Who?" She asked, surprised at Macgyver enthusiasm to follow this lead. Matty, while shaking her head, reluctantly allowed him to ask his request before putting him in the dog house.

"Her online handle is Nympho." Macgyver explained as Riley set down her laptop and began searching through data files, giving Matty the chance to confront Macgyver.

"I thought I told you to leave the phone?" She said, her eyebrows raised at the blonde.

"To be fair it's a good thing I didn't, else I would have missed the call."

"Call?" She repeated, stunned that he'd received a call from the phone before she deduced that must have been where this new lead came from. "From who?"

"Adam, who he now thinks is on our side." Jack interrupted, which only seemed to make Matty's temples pulse.

"Not on our side necessarily, but I also don't think we should condemn a guy we've never met." Macgyver defended, hoping his on the fence point would at least somewhat calm his boss. Thankfully Riley spun around with a smile on her face.

"Nympho, AKA Lydia." She said, looking at Macgyver who spied at the laptop screen, though the information there was limited.

"Does Lydia have a last name?" Jack asked, also spying the screen, though he seemed to gloss over most of it.

"Not a documented one." Riley said, her voice lowering slightly with disappointment. "To be honest, there's not a lot of information documented."

"Well it doesn't look like any government database…" Jack pointed out, noticing the dark website skin and odd layout that seemed rather disorganised.

"That's because it's not. It's technically…one of the websites from the A.N.N on Kurt's laptop. A website that offers doxed information on _players_." She explained, backing out of the page to show the website in full, a long, several page list of people's names and addresses.

"If she was doxed, shouldn't he have her last name?" Matty asked, listening carefully to what Riley was saying, looking at the excessive information on screen.

"Most of hers is redacted, several people have redacted information. And I don't think it's from faulty recovery before you ask Jack." She says, glancing over at Jack before he can utter a word. "There's a laughing skull at the bottom of the screen and the text underneath saying, 'I was hacked'."

"So another hacker redacted the information?" Matty asked, looking up at her computer expert who nodded in response. "Is there any information we can use?"

"There is an address listed for her." Riley pointed out, highlighting the LA address under Lydia. A suburban property surprisingly not too far from them, which seemed to visibly disturb Bozer and perhaps more subtly disturb Macgyver.

"Let's check it out." Jack said, tapping Macgyver's shoulder as two left, Matty shook her head as she watched them jog down to the street, jumping in Jack's car once more to head out to find the Nympho


	12. Eleven

Pulling up in front of the house, the duo glanced at the address. Not the kind of home you'd think belonged to a hacker. The street seemed quiet, a few street lights were out and other dimly lit the now dark road. It wasn't the most idle time to be working, but neither of the men believed they were going to get a peaceful night sleep until something was done.

They stepped out the car and crossed the road, approaching the house slowly. Macgyver pulling a flashlight out and clicking it on as Jack pulled his gun out, pulling the safety off as they reached the door. Macgyver held out a hand and knocked on the wooden door, waiting a few moments before looking over at Jack.

Gun in hand, Jack kicked in the door, scanning the first room and clearing it before moving to the next room. Macgyver moving in behind, following Jack as he passed through each room. The blonde hanging back in the lounge, finding a light switch and flicking it, the room brightening up to show the dusty furniture.

Yet another computer sat at a desk, though this one seemed to be disconnected. The Nympho seemed to have disappeared just like the rest, though Macgyver figured she'd probably been gone much longer than the others.

He sat down at the computer, plugging it all in and switching it on. It took a few seconds to arrive at the desktop, a plain blue background like the others. A few unusual icons, but nothing he hadn't seen on both Kurt and Clint's devices. He looked through the files, only to find there had been a complete system reset. Folders were empty and documents that were nothing more than blank pages. They weren't going to getting very much from this one.

"Mac, you find anything?" Jack shouted, a few seconds later he came around the corner as Macgyver stood up.

"Computer's a dead end. You?" Macgyver asked, as Jack began shoving the gun back into his trousers.

"May-" Just as he spoke the lights shut off. The two agents jumped, Jack quickly pulling the gun back out. "What happened?" He whispered, his eyes scanning the lounge.

"Relax, the power just went out." Macgyver smiled, letting a brief sigh of relief. Jack settled briefly before, lowering his gun, but seemed to remain on edge. "There's probably a transformer outside, I'll take a look."

The flashlight clicked back on, Macgyver leaving his friend in the dark house as he went off in search of fixing the power. Though Jack was sure he'd have it fixed in no time. He put his gun away and carefully found his way around the house, reaching the bedroom he'd cleared while Macgyver looked over computer files.

He picked up a framed image from her dresser, holding up to the moonlight from the window, seeing a Caucasian woman with long blonde hair, cuddling up to a man with combed back black hair. They both seemed to be smiling and posing for the image and Jack believed the woman to be Lydia and that perhaps this man could offer some insight into her.

He looked up from the image and found his way back to the lounge. Everything seemed rather quiet, unsettling quiet. He searched by touch for the light switch, flicking it up and down when he found it. No response from the lights.

"Hey Mac?" Jack shouted out, moving towards the windows running down one side of the house. He glanced out briefly to see if he could see the man, but even in the dim surrounding he could tell Macgyver wasn't outside.

He wandered out the house, looking down either side to see both empty, his attention then turned to the street, wandering a few paces down to find the green box identified as a transformer, but no soul in sight. He looked around before taking a closer inspection at the transformer, or rather the ground around it.

A white doll mask lay on the floor, one worn by the very person that had broken into their house earlier.


	13. Twelve

Macgyver's eyes slowly creaked open to the dim, brown concrete ceiling. Lying a something lumpy and somewhat damp. He gained his composure and jolted up, looking down to see the flimsy bed he was lying on, pressed against the wall of a concrete room which seemed empty aside from it. A single metal door was embedded into the wall, his instinct was to wander over. He crept off the bed and moved towards the door, his hand sliding over the cold metal. The was no door handle of any description, and he certainly couldn't push it open.

His eyes scanned the room looking for anything he could use to his advantage. But aside from the bed, he had no look. The only other thing in the room was a vent on the other side. Though he did spot a small hole in the wall by the bed, creeping over and cautiously peering through he saw another room, not too unlike the one he was in. But this room contained a computer, peering right at him. He attempted to shift his vision around the room and while most was covered by boxes he did catch a glimpse of metal, one that looked like the vent in his room.

He wandered over to the bed, pulling the damp mattress onto the floor and grabbed the metal meshing under it, pulling a wire off and wandering over to the vent. Embedding it into the screws as he twisted, pulling each screw off, allowing him to remove the vent cover. He quietly set it down on the floor and climbed in.

He began crawling, irritated at the clanging he made as he moved through the vent, but to be fair, vents weren't designed to be crawled through. He eventually reached the end of the tunnel, pushing the already loose cover off, placing it gently on the floor. He clambered out and looked over the piles of boxes. He found his way to the other end where another metal door sat, unmovable like the other.

His attention turned to the computer, sitting at the desk it sat on, he turned the monitor on to see a familiar desktop page. Within a few seconds a message popped up on screen, the screen name marked as unknown was typing. Macgyver waited a few seconds for the person to speak, hearing a small ping when the text popped up

Unknown

The speaker icon. click it

Macgyver's eyes canned the screen to find the top bar held a speaker icon with three line to one side of it, the moment he clicked it those liens vanished.

User 2

Why?

Unknown

He'll be listening. you need to be quiet, less you want nother nap

User 2

Where is this? what's going on?

Unknown

Waiting room

Macgyver paused, his hands hovering over the keyboard, his ears perked up as he heard the sounds of doors in the far distance. He even believed at one point he could hear faint screams or whimpers. Another message popped through while he hesitated.

Unknown

You need a password to get out

User 2

Password? how do I get that?

Unknown

Same way u ended up here

User 2

What? I'm not a hacker

Unknown

Weren't you looking for codes?

User 2

No

With that, the unknown now seemed to be the one who hesitated, it seemed like such a long time before he would reply. Macgyver stared at the screen, lost at what to do. If the only way out was to find a password through code hunting, he was going to have a very difficult time with it. He leaned back in the rickety chair, hand over his mouth as he tried to think of some alternate way out with the materials he had.

His thoughts interrupted as two messages came through. Well one was a change to the name, it now reading…Kurt?

Kurt

I'm in the same position as u. So we help each other?

User 2

How?

Kurt

I can find codes.

He paused again, a typing icon popping in and out of the message box as he clearly attempted to word his next statement carefully

Kurt

There's a patrol every so often. Makes going back and forth difficult. If your caught doing something you shouldn't. so I need someone to distract him

User 2

Distract him how?

Kurt

Noise. He's ears like a hawk

User 2

I think I can manage that

And with that, Kurt stopped replying, Macgyver looking around the new room he'd found himself in. He spotted another hole in the wall, one that pointed out into the hallway. He took the chance to peer out into the dreary, empty hallway. From the little he could see, he spied a door to his right and a corridor than ran on too far to see on his left.

He pulled his head back and looked to the computer and boxes, an image of his cell clear in his mind as he began attempting to visualise a contraption that would perhaps, get him out while he's still breathing.


End file.
